Hunting Tess by Kathryn Summers (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

for remembrance. The people in these pictures can’t be the same. They’re happy, celebrating, enjoying life. The ones downstairs are motionless.

Dazed, I walk into my perfectly preserved room. A homage to their daughter who was lost. At least it will be easy to find what I need.

Eliza knocks lightly at the door as I’m slipping on my final sock. “We’re going to go to Ben’s,” she announces delicately, as if speaking too loudly will shatter whatever small tether I have on reality.

“I don’t . . . I don’t remember what happened after . . . after.” My voice sounds hollow even to my own ears.

Bravely crossing the room with determination imprinted all over her face, she takes my hands in hers. “Everything will be alright.” The surety in her voice is a nice gesture, but it doesn’t make me feel better. “So you don’t remember anything? At all?”

I shake my head and she lets out a gust of air. “Oh boy. Good thing you’re sitting down because this is going to be a shocking bit of news.”

Later at Ben’s I lie in bed with both my friends sandwiched around me, holding me together while the Twins rest against my feet. My tears stopped hours before so only the dry sobs remain. My eyes are puffy and swollen, making it difficult to see the trees shadows dancing across the ceiling.

I killed a fair number of vampires. Not all since I didn’t see anything that resembled Dmitri or Viktor, but a good number. And if Eliza hadn’t seen the tail end of things, I wouldn’t have believed her even though the evidence was scattered across the floor. The only shifters that exist shift into wolves, like Leo, Caleb, and Parker. Shifters don’t change into giant panthers. But that is what Eliza saw.

I’ve always been agile, my strength and speed increasing the older I get. I can see, hear, and smell incredibly well which has gotten me into trouble in the past, but I never dreamed it would culminate in a final act. Knowing how it was triggered, I would be happy never to shift again.

A fresh wave of ache grows until my eyes burn from the prick of depleted tears. Ben grasps my hand and Eliza moves closer, making the sob not less terrible, but at least not so lonely. Dozing off sometime in the night, I wake to a beam of light streaking across my face. Eliza and Ben are gone, probably downstairs getting something to eat.

Pushing myself up I rub at my eyes which still hurt from crying. Feel unrested, my body wants to go back to sleep but my mind knows that would never be possible. The hushed murmur of voices float from downstairs and I figure I should go down.

My hand pauses on the railing when I hear two voices who should not be here.

“Wait, how were vampires able to attend school during the day?”

“They were our age,” Ben explains. “Not fully matured so they could stand the sun. I think they’re close to reaching maturity now.”

“Then what?”

“Tess attacked him. It was either that or watch Sam die on stage. Dmitri was actually killing Sam, baiting Tess. Then chaos erupted when they started fighting, nearly too quickly to track.”

“And then the fire,” Marilyn, Ben’s mom, chimes in to Ben’s narrative. “You have to understand that Hillbrook is a highly prestigious school, their graduates fought over by Ivy League universities. The auditorium was overflowing with talent scouts. The school would spare no expense in their productions, and that included using real fire. Someone—”

“Viktor,” Eliza utters.

“Someone, let the flames get out of hand, catching the curtains on fire, spreading from there.”

“She knew they wouldn’t stop until she was dead,” Ben says. “So, she gave them what they wanted. She faked her death.”

Silence follows the reveal and I wonder what Parker’s face looks like.

“Sam was on stage,” Eliza murmurs softly. “He helped her get away, staging it to look like she had died in the fire.”

“So that’s how they found her now? Three years later?”

Another silence follows and I wish I was down there to defend Sam’s name. It wasn’t his fault, not really anyway.

“What happened? What happened to Sam?” Parker asks in a tight voice.

“His body was found in a river.”

Done with eavesdropping, I stomp slighter harder than I need to down the steps. Rounding the corner into the brightly colored kitchen reveals Marilyn, Ben, Eliza, Parker, and Leo looking like conspirators at a round table. Conspirators with breakfast. Marilyn jumps up when she sees me, immediately fixing me a plate of food. My eyes stray to the newcomers, wondering what they’re doing here.

“You need to eat something,” Marilyn orders, placing thick French toast at her empty chair before ushering me into it. Eliza pours a glass of orange juice, nearly forcing it into my hand as Marilyn kisses me on the head. “I have to run to work. Unless you want me to stay?”

The earnestness in her eyes making sure I’m okay puts a lump in my throat. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” she says, stroking my hair once before picking up her purse from the counter. “I’ll be back a little after five.”

I stare at the plate as the garage door closes. My stomach is empty, but food is the last thing on my mind.

“Eat.” Eliza commands, holding out a fork which I don’t move to take. “Do you want enough energy to go and kill some more vampires? Because the last time I checked energy comes from food. So eat, I can hear your stomach growling.”

Though she can hear no such thing because it didn’t, I take the outstretched fork. “Are you all planning on watching me eat or are you going to eat your own food?”

As if receiving the okay to continue their meal, some tension leaves like a large exhale.

“I don’t mean to rush things,” Parker apologizes, completely ignoring his food, “but what is your plan moving forward?”

The glare Eliza shoots him could freeze water. “Parker!”

“It’s fine,”